title: Huntington's disease and Huntington's disease-like syndromes: an overview.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The differential diagnosis of chorea syndromes may be complex and includes various genetic disorders such as Huntington's disease and mimicking disorders called Huntington's disease-like (HDL) phenotypes. To familiarize clinicians with these (in some cases very rare) conditions we will summarize the main characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HDL disorders are rare and account for about 1% of cases presenting with a Huntington's disease phenotype. They share overlapping clinical features, so making the diagnosis purely on clinical grounds may be challenging, however presence of certain characteristics may be a clue (e.g. prominent orofacial involvement in neuroferritinopathy etc.), Information of ethnic descent will also guide genetic work-up [HDL2 in Black Africans; dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy (DRPLA) in Japanese etc.], Huntington's disease, the classical HDL disorders (except HDL3) and DRPLA are repeat disorders with anticipation effect and age-dependent phenotype in some, but genetic underpinnings may be more complicated in the other chorea syndromes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With advances in genetics more and more rare diseases are disentangled, allowing molecular diagnoses in a growing number of choreic patients. Hopefully, with better understanding of their pathophysiology we are moving towards mechanistic therapies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, University-Hospital-Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel Campus, Schittenhelmstrasse 10, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gövert
authors.forename: Susanne A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Schneider
mesh_terms: D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics; D020271:Heredodegenerative Disorders, Nervous System / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D019189:Iron Metabolism Disorders / Q000235:genetics; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D020191:Myoclonic Epilepsies, Progressive / Q000235:genetics; D019150:Neuroaxonal Dystrophies / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D011328:Prions / Q000235:genetics; D013577:Syndrome; D035181:TATA-Box Binding Protein / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D008565:Membrane Proteins; D011328:Prions; D035181:TATA-Box Binding Protein; C509817:TBP protein, human; C412507:junctophilin